Are you over 70 1/2 and own an IRA? Take advantage of the “Qualified Charitable Distribution” (QRD) rules to get more tax bang for your charitable contribution bucks.

Here’s how it works. The usual way of getting a tax deduction for a charitable contribution is to write a check to your favorite 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. You take the payment as an itemized deduction on Schedule A of your tax return. Not bad, but…

If you’re over 70 1/2, you can direct your IRA trustee to make charitable contributions (up to $100,000 per year) directly from your IRA to the charity. The IRA distributions that go to charity are not considered a taxable IRA distribution. You don’t take the deduction on Schedule A, but the effect is the same since you’re knocking down your taxable income by the amount of the gift. You also get these additional potential benefits:

If you don’t ordinarily itemize, you can take your standard deduction and get the benefit of the charitable contribution from your IRA.

If you do itemize and have medical or investment expenses, your “hurdle” for deducting these expenses is taken down a notch.

If you have low income but large assets and want to get a tax benefit from charitable contributions, you won’t be subject to the “50% of AGI” charitable contribution limitation” .

If you hate having to take a Required Minimum Distribution from your IRA, you can take the RMD as a charitable contribution, satisfy the RMD requirement, but not take the distribution into income.